The interface bloomed open.
[System #2: Creation and Luck Protocol] [Primary Directive: Ensure Host experiences luxury, ease, and overwhelming advantage in all scenarios.]
[Passive Buffs:] [Stat Points per Level: 15 (Standard: 5) | All Rewards: Tripled automatically | Base Luck Stat: +25 (Permanent) | Inventory Slots: 12 (Expandable) | Shop Access: Premium Tier]
[Active Features:] [Daily Quest Generation | Lottery Wheel (Guaranteed S-Rank minimum) | Emergency Assistance Protocol | Personalized Mission Selection]
Riri read it twice. Fifteen stat points per level. Triple rewards on every dungeon clear. A Luck stat that started at twenty-five when the human average was five. She turned away from the window and moved toward the center of the room.
"Your primary directive," she said, "is to give me an easy life."
[Correct! This unit believes Host deserves comfort, safety, and beautiful things. Now! Shall we begin your preparation? This unit has generated your first quest!]
A new notification bloomed. This one was bordered in swirling gold.
[Daily Quest: Morning Routine] [Objective: Complete 10 minutes of stretching exercises] [Reward: Luxury Lottery Ticket (Guaranteed S-Rank or higher) x1 + 100 Stat Points] [Time Limit: 1 hour] [Accept? Y/N]
Riri stared at it. One hundred stat points for stretching.
"This is disgusting," she muttered.
[This unit prefers 'generous'! Does Host accept?]
She pressed "Yes."
[Quest Accepted! Please begin whenever Host is ready. A timer will appear once stretching is detected. Good luck! ♡]
The heart symbol made her eye twitch.
She shrugged off the leather jacket and let it pool on the marble. When she rolled her shoulders, her new body moved differently than expected. It felt lighter and more flexible. Her joints felt like they'd been recently oiled. She dropped into a lunge to test the range.
The pull hit her inner thigh immediately. It was sharp and bright, the kind of pain that said these muscles had never been asked to do anything.
"Wait." She held the position. "Why am I getting a hundred stat points for stretching?"
The gold interface dimmed at the edges, the way a person might hesitate before delivering bad news.
[Excellent question, Host. This unit must inform you: your current physical vessel is... suboptimal.]
"Suboptimal."
[To be frank: the previous host prioritized aesthetic maintenance over functional strength. Your base stats are currently below standard human averages.]
Something cold settled behind her sternum. This wasn't the marble's chill.
"Show me."
[Host Status: Riri Lee] [Level: 1 | Class: Locked]
[Stats:] Strength: 3 (Human Average: 10) Agility: 6 (Human Average: 10) Constitution: 4 (Human Average: 10) Intelligence: 14 (Human Average: 10) Wisdom: 12 (Human Average: 10) Luck: 25 (Human Average: 5) Charisma: 18 (Human Average: 10)
[Combat Power: 87 | HP: 40/40 | MP: 120/120]
Riri's arms trembled. She shifted out of the lunge and sat back on her heels. The tutorial slimes in Training Dungeons dealt fifteen damage per hit. Two hits. That was all she had.
"I'm made of tissue paper," she said.
[This unit prefers 'delicate'! But yes, Host's durability is... concerning. Hence the generous starter quest. This unit refuses to send Host into danger at Combat Power 87. ♡]
She looked down at her hands. Slim fingers, skin smooth as lacquer, no calluses anywhere. They were the kind of hands that had never gripped anything heavier than a stylus. She curled them into fists. Even that felt fragile.
Fragile was a footnote in this world. Just a footnote describing blood on stone.
She dropped back into her stretching routine. The timer ticked to life in the corner of her vision, counting down in pulses rather than numbers.
Her hamstrings burned. Her lower back protested in a language she hadn't known this body spoke. Every movement confirmed what the stats had already said. This body had been maintained like something decorative. Stretched for posture, never for function. Kept flexible, light, and useless.
She moved into a seated fold, her forehead dipping toward her knees. The long fall of her hair swept forward and pooled on the marble around her hands. It smelled faintly of sandalwood and something expensive she didn't have a name for.
[Halfway there, Host! You're doing wonderfully! ♡]
"You say that to all your hosts," she said into her knees.
[This unit has only ever had one host.]
She sat up. "Right."
That landed differently than she expected. She held the thought for exactly one breath, then let it go and switched to a side lunge, bracing her weight on her right leg. Her inner thigh screamed. Her arms shook from the simple act of holding her own weight.
She held it anyway.
The penthouse was completely silent except for her breathing. Too quiet for a city. The kind of quiet that meant three hundred thousand people were all doing exactly what she was doing: sitting inside the proof of how badly the math was stacked against them.
She switched sides.
[Almost done, Host!]
Her back was tight, locked up from however long she'd been unconscious on that marble floor. She moved into a cat-cow stretch, arching and releasing, feeling each vertebra shift with a series of soft pops. The leather jacket lay crumpled nearby, one sleeve twisted inside-out.
She breathed through it and counted by feel, not numbers.
DING.
Gold particles cascaded across her vision.
[Quest Complete: Morning Routine] [Rewards Obtained:] [Luxury Lottery Ticket (S-Rank Minimum) x1] [Stat Points: +100]
[Congratulations, Host! Please allocate your stat points at your convenience. This unit recommends prioritizing Constitution and Strength to address your... delicate situation. ♡]
Riri sat back on her heels, looking at the unallocated points glowing in her peripheral vision. One hundred of them, patient and gold. She pulled up her status window.
The numbers waited.
Her finger hovered over the mental trigger for Strength. She made herself think it through. Constitution first. She needed to not die from two hits before she could worry about anything else.
She started allocating.